Ed Fisher, who turned South Kitsap into a state football powerhouse during his years at the Port Orchard High School, is among five former Eastern Washington athletes who will be inducted in Eastern’s Athletics Hall of Fame. Fisher will be honored on Oct. 10 in Cheney.
The honor’s well deserved. I don’t know that I’ve covered a better high school football coach in my years in this business.
Here’s the bio info the school released about Fisher:
Ed Fisher
(Athlete/Football-Track & Contributor)
Fisher played football for Eastern from 1967-70, and then
established a football powerhouse at South Kitsap High School in
Port Orchard, Wash., in the 80’s and 90’s. A 1967 graduate of
Shadle Park High School in Spokane, Fisher earned Little
All-Northwest honors as a cornerback in 1969 and 1970, and both
seasons was also honored on the All-Evergreen Conference and
All-NAIA District 1 teams. He was an honorable mention All-District
1 selection as a sophomore and played as a freshman in 1967 when
Eastern finished 11-1 and advanced to the championship game of the
NAIA Playoffs. Also Eastern’s punter, he still owns the school
record with 78 punts in 1968, which at the time were also Evergreen
Conference and NAIA records. His 219 career punts were a school
record for nearly 30 years before it was broken in 1997. He also
competed in track and field as a long/triple jumper at Eastern, and
four times he advanced to the NAIA Championships — outdoors in 1969
and 1970, and indoors in 1970 and 1971. His best finish was
outdoors in 1970 with a long jump effort of 24-3 3/4 after setting
a school record earlier in the season of 24-5 1/2. That mark stood
as a school record for nine years and currently ranks fourth in
school history. He also had a career-best triple jump of 45-7 3/4.
Hired as a high school head coach at the young age of 23, he spent
23 seasons at South Kitsap where he had a 197-48 record (.804
winning percentage) and ended his career with 17-straight playoff
appearances. When he left South Kitsap, he ranked in the top 20
all-time in the State of Washington in wins, and his winning
percentage was sixth among coaches with at least 150 victories.
South Kitsap won the WIAA State AAA championship in 1994, and was
runner-up in 1982 and 1984. In his last 15 seasons, the Wolves won
14 league titles. In his final season at the helm in 1996, South
Kitsap was 12-0 before losing in the State AAA semifinals to
Richland. He left South Kitsap and returned to Spokane as vice
principal and activities coordinator at North Central High School,
and later helped his son Adam coach at East Valley High School in
Spokane. Fisher was inducted into the Washington State Football
Coaches Association in 1996 and the Kitsap Sports Hall of Fame in
2005. In December 1999, the Seattle Times selected him as one of
the top five coaches in this history of high school football in the
state of Washington. He was selected by the Eastern Athletic
Department to the “100 for 100” All-Time Football Team, which was
honored on Sept. 27, 2008, to commemorate Eastern’s 100th year of
football. Two of his players at South Kitsap — Derek Strey and
Kevin Peterson — were also selected to that squad.
